Wisdom in her Eyes
life
for black women did not begin in 1619
when the first ship of enslaved africans
arrived in jamestown virginia
life for indigenous caribbean women did
not
end in 1492 when christopher columbus
got lost trying to get to india and
ended up on the other side of the world
in the bahamas
throughout eternity women children and
men
have adored and honored and worshipped
the divine mother
today i will speak with you about three
such women who have loved
unconditionally who have sacrificed
themselves
for the community and who have left an
example of wisdom for us
but first i must pay respect to the
women who raised me
who are now in the heavenly realm
i pay respect to my mother esther ward
barnett
my grandmother hilda ward auntie may
auntie millie auntie lillian
auntie margaret and i pay regards to my
paternal grandmother titty albury
of elutra bahamas i must also pay
regards to the mother of this
sacred space mrs rosa parks
the first woman i will tell you about is
offset
aung
is the mother of the universe she
created the stars the moon
the galaxies the continents
everything that we consider part of our
universe our solar system
she ruled in a time before time even
began
in an area called kemet with her husband
arser
the greeks have changed their name to
isis and osiris
life was good at that time
there was peace there was prosperity
there was bliss
until austere’s evil brother set
plotted to kill him and indeed
seth not only killed his brother but he
chopped up his body into 16 pieces
and scattered them throughout the
universe
naturally austere was afraid for her
life or sex was afraid for her life
and for the lives of her people but she
knew she had business to handle
so she flapped her wings and flew
through the planets through the stars
over the mountains
the valleys into the ocean and gathered
the 16 pieces of her husband’s body
when she found the pieces she made love
and created
our son the son of our solar system geru
who the greeks called horus
asset strategically raised her son
s.u.n to be a divine force of nature
to bring light to bring warmth
to bring energy to bring power to the
world
and heru himself committed himself to
being a warrior of social justice
he has been fighting this eternal battle
of good versus evil
when heroes on top we know because
there’s plenty of food for everyone
there’s peace in the land there’s
happiness there’s good education
but we know when his uncle is on top
that is evil
because we have pandemics we have
poverty we have homelessness
we have slavery we have babies being
locked up in cages and immigration camps
we have the holocaust people being burnt
in mass because of their religion
yet heru continues this eternal fight
for good
versus evil the members of the assaira
said society
continue to worship or set today
number two atabay
growing up as a child in the bahamas i
heard my elders whispering all the time
strange words like guanahani arawak
tano cuckoo
kanau i didn’t know what these words
mean
and i couldn’t ask questions you see
irish raised at a time and place when
children were to be seen
but never heard so i’ve mastered the art
of sucking my thumb reading a book
and listening to every single word they
said
so in time i learned that tano arawak
were their indigenous people off the
bahamas
i learned that canoe is the canoe a boat
that they use to travel from place to
place i learned that cuckoo soup
was their favorite food made with a base
of cassava
yam and okra i learned that guana honey
is the indigenous name for sal salvador
christopher columbus when he came
with a sword in one hand and a cross in
the other
my people were ignorant he actually
wrote in his journal these are his own
words
they are friendly simple people
you are hungry they will give you food
you are sick they will care for you
but what did he and his man do it in
return what did they do in return
they raped our mothers they killed off
our people
the vast majority of the tanner arawaks
were slaughtered by christopher columbus
as a child we often read in the history
books the arawak the well they didn’t
even call marowaks
the people in the bahamas the indians in
the bahamas because he thought he was in
india
the indians in the bahamas died from
small packs
smallpox syphilis and gonorrhea
and it just seemed so normal the history
books normalized
the near genocide of my people
but syphilis and gonorrhea are not like
covet 19
it doesn’t just transmit around in the
air it is sexually transmitted
christopher columbus and his men
forced themselves upon our mothers
but not all of them died i am standing
here
as proof as proof to the resilience of
the tano arawak people
i am a descendant of the dhanu arawak
people
atabay their goddess their god
their creators she is so bad
that she created herself for herself
and all by herself she procreated twins
without the help of anyone she
procreated twins all by herself
she is a powerful deity and atabay
whisper to the people
go go go go to the waters the water will
protect you
so they went in their canal or their
canoes and most of them
ended up throughout the caribbean but
the most ended up in puerto rico
and to this day arawak descendants in
puerto rico
still pay respect to atabay
the final woman i will tell you about is
mariemi
maria janzero
was a young queen about the age of 14 or
she was the born into a royal family and
was the daughter of oduwa
oduduwa is the progenitor of the yoruba
race
he was so prolific that europe was today
number
more than 100 million people and they
are
all over the world we are all over the
world
of course the vast majority of europa
people are in the area the
british called nigeria they are also and
secondly in brazil
thirdly in the united states but also in
the bahamas
in jamaica and haiti in trinidad guess
what
europe was also in germany and china
japan
wherever there are people europa’s are
there making a difference in the world
going back to mariemi at the time that
she was queen of ila ife
a city-state um
people were being kidnapped from her
area
people would go to the marketplace to go
buy some fish
to go sell their yam and they would
disappear people would go to the farm
to plant their sugar cane the plant
their fruits and they would disappear
murray me went to the river this was a
time and place
when people can speak with nature when
they could hear the river
hear the ocean hear the trees we
actually still have that power if we
take the time to cultivate it
mauree me went to the river at the
marine and said what should i do
and she stayed there and she cried and
she plead and the river spoke back to
her
and said there is a solution to your
problem every problem has a solution
but you will have to make a great
sacrifice maureen
said anything anything i will do
anything to save my people and so the
river told her what to do
dress in her fine ash okay fabric wear
her gale on her head
and just stand there just stand in the
marketplace
and so she did that she went to the
marketplace and just stood there
sure enough these mysterious beings who
the
if they thought were spirits these
mysterious beings came and snatched her
and snatched other people
when they went into the forest where
they live the king of these people saw
her and said
she is final she is a fine sister i will
marry her and make her queen
and that is what he did which was great
because from that vantage point
maureen could hear everything she sat in
silence and she listened
and she heard everything that these were
not mysterious beings
these were simply men with palm fronds
with raffia
raffi is the dried leaves from the palm
tree from the coconut tree
they would let them dry put it on their
head covered their bodies
and if they had never seen anything like
that and thought they were spirits
so once she learned the secret she went
back to her ilife where she’s from
and told her real husband king aramian
what was going on
and so the next time the mysterious
beans came the ifas were ready
they were ready they had fire ready and
they torched
these forest people and ended slavery
forever in illaii
but the story doesn’t end there mourinho
returned to the river
to thank god for saving her people and
she was gracious she brought fruit
she bought yam she bought chicken she
bought goat she brought everything to
thank god
for saving her people but river este
marine said well
you brought all these nice things i love
them but what about the thing i asked
for
and marnie said oh my son you meant it
really you want my only child my only
son
and the river said yes this is what our
promise was this is what your promise
was
so marie me cried and she begged and she
cajoled and she tried to make a deal but
it didn’t work and she had to go and get
olarugbo
but her son was willing our son was
willing to be a sacrifice to save the
people of elephant
as he descended into the river as the
marine his soul
ascended into heaven and he became the
rainbow
to this day the yoruba people once a
year
have the idi festival where they worship
queen mourinho jensen roe for
sacrificing her only son
for the saving of their community so
these are the three of the many many
many
women who have made a major impact on my
life who’ve taught me to appreciate the
power of womanhood
also though in my life i have children
who have taught me
i have worked in all girls schools and
have been so inspired by them
but i will tell you a little bit about
my daughters brianna and brooke bennett
who came to me and said for our 12th
birthday we want to make an impact on
the world
and i was like hi they’re like we want
to end poverty i’m like wow that’s huge
poverty
what kind of poverty homelessness
hunger miseducation what and they said
period poverty
period poverty is the case of women and
girls not having the menstrual products
they need to stay clean
and healthy and hygiene during their
menstrual cycle so they miss school
or they miss work or guess what they
even use the same pads over and over
again
a friend of mine just told me about
girls at her school who share the pads
with their friends
so that is period poverty when we
started when the girls started the
organization 2019
20 of american girls and women suffered
from period poverty
because of covet 19 now 25
of american women suffer from period
poverty how do we resolve this
really yes we need legislation as they
have in scotland so that now scotland is
providing free menstrual products for
all girls and women
but we also need a change in mentality
to value
the worth of women to see the beauty in
women to see what we bring to
civilization
and why we should be honored so ask
yourself
how can you be like all set how can you
go about and pick up the 16 pieces
of our broken community of our men
suffering from drugs imprisonment faults
imprisonment
even legal even legitimate imprisonment
poverty underemployment how do we solve
that
how can you be like at habe and
transform yourself into the woman or the
person you want to be
how can you be like moraimi what can you
sacrifice for the betterment of the
community
look into your eyes and see the wisdom
that is there that you can pass on to
your children
your grandchildren and your
great-grandchildren thank you